We get a lot of the same questions, so we thought it might be helpful to provide a resource for some of our most frequently asked questions. If there's something that you would like us to include then please feel free to message us.

 

FIVE YEAR RULE

Recently, Apple changed it’s policy as it relates to repairing older MacBook models. Apple made this decision due to the amount of antiquated MacBooks and because some of these older models required a closer look that Apple doesn’t have time to invest in. This means that anything older than five years is no longer repairable or serviceable at their stores. Luckily, we have no such rule and we are more than happy to look at any older MacBooks.

recalls

We love helping out our customers, even if it doesn't mean a dime for us.  Sometimes, your MacBook will have recalls which Apple will and will not make known in various cases. There was an issue with a display on some Retinas that had a recall recently, and we were able to send some of our customers to Apple to get it fixed free of charge. There has also been recalls for certain logic board and video cards over the past few years. If there's a recall, we can let you know about it depending on which model you have. 

apple care plus

     ** Applecare plus does cover liquid and physical damage with a deductible 99.00 for screen and 315.00 for liquid and physical damage and or replacement , this started being offered on 2016 and newer Apple portable computers**

     If you're quick enough and make it to MacBook Clinic/ Ahattek Oxford we can help as best as we can. In cases where we cannot save your MacBook you will not have to pay anything. But a few hundred dollars to save a two thousand dollar MacBook is worth it in our opinion. 

     Keep in mind if you ever have an issue and do bring your MacBook to the Apple store they keep very detailed notes and actually take a photo of the interior of your MacBook.  We mention this because we have had issues where we fix liquid damage and then a year or two later we may have a return visit from a customer who has an entirely different issue which we know Apple covers. If we send you to the Apple store and they pull up the notes from a previous visit they will just state that you have liquid damage and that is why you are having an issue with this entirely other problem. So again, please come to us first. 

LIQUID DAMAGE

our prices

     We've come to our prices after years of working on MacBooks and iMacs. We also use stores such as Best Buy, Staples and of course the Apple store to confirm that we're often less than half the price with the same amount of service.  We want to be affordable, fair and easy to work with. We're not saving up for a yacht so our prices don't reflect that.  

BYOP

     In some cases your repair or upgrade can be expedited by you bringing in your own parts. We cannot warranty any parts that you bring in but we do help you in the case that things may go awry. If you have any questions about which parts you need we are always happy to send a link on where to purchase them.  

background

     We've worked in IT and project management for over 10 years . Having hundreds of computers to work on for certain orders meant that we got really fast at fixing. Also with the increase of more modern equipment, MacBooks and iMacs we were able to concentrate our focus on this new trend.

reviews

     We love reviews on Google, Yelp and our Facebook page. In regards to advertising on Google or Yelp, our reviews are organic and not paid for. This allows us to bring in more customers from word of mouth and with more customers that means more trade ins for us to have in stock. We also love helping people out. We do want to mention that we make the effort to make all of our customers happy. No one's happy to spend dough repairing a back book and sometimes we do get a keyboard/armchair warrior who blasts us without talking to us first. If you have an issue we're happy to make it right.  

retina

     The Retina models are a tighter / faster / slimmer model of MacBook and require a bit more finesse when working on. The Retinas also have a premium when ordering parts. Most other MacBooks have been around so they have come down in price for parts as people move onto the next big thing. With any Retina model we do let you know that some of the repairs may take additional time. For example, the battery on the Retina is glued in so when we replace it we have to very carefully heat up the area and remove the battery without exploding the battery. :) 

youtube

     With the growing rise of do it yourself videos we've actually seen more business. Sometimes whoever is doing a video may have or have not done a certain repair before or may have just gotten lucky this time. Many things can go wrong when you have a MacBook dismantled and also self diagnosing issues can lead to you buying things you don't need and then trying to figure out what the real issue is. Come in and we'll fix it for you. 

diagnosis

     We do love a phone call explaining what the issue with your MacBook is, but really we need it in our store to check it out manually. Occasionally, we can say with certainty: "Oh that's because of a loose cable or your trackpad is damaged definitely". But until we actually have it in front of us we can't tell. We do offer free diagnosis on all our repairs. If we don't fix it then you don't pay. 

FRESH INSTALL

     Sometimes a fresh install will cure all. When you upgrade to an SSD we highly recommend you do a fresh install of the latest Apple operating system. Typically this is a same day repair.

PROGRAMS

      Sometimes when we do fresh installs you may lose programs that you have downloaded. Please make a note of any programs you may want to reinstall. Often times if you've purchased a program from a website you can redownload for no cost as long as you have a receipt or a login to said site. If you've downloaded a program from the Apple store then when you log back into your iCloud account upon resetting up your MacBook you can redownload any programs. We do apologize for any lost programs but we cannot be responsible for this aspect during a fresh install.

Referral 

     Our business is reflective of our referrals and not our national tv campaign. All of our business is repeat or referrals with the occasional google search. 

     

AUTHORIZED

     We choose to be independent from Apple's official authorized repair centers because it prevents us from being customer-centric. We fix liquid damage, broken screens, keyboards and a number of other things where as if we were authorized Apple service provider we would be required to take notes, photos and send them along to Apple prior to any repair which may sometimes void your warranty. We don't want to tattle tail on any of customers when accidents happen.

discounts

     We want to thank the men and women who serve in any branch of our armed forces or government bodies, which is why we offer a 15% discount on all of our services to Police, Fire, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, National Guard, ICE, Homeland Security, Border Patrol and FBI heroes. BE sure to let us know that you qualify when you come in, and please bring in your Military ID, badge, or other form of identification — thank you! :-)

    

About this MAC

When looking at a MacBook or iMac for purchase we highly suggest an alternative more effective way of seeing the specs. The information in "About this Mac" can have the code altered to say anything. That means someone could sit you down with a 2013 MacBook and look you in the face and say it's a high end 2015 Macbook with loaded memory and ssd. Boot up the MacBook and hold command R during this process and this will bring you into the recovery console where you can use disk utility to see the size of the hard drive. You can also use system profiler to verify the processesor and any other information you may have held questionable. 

REFLOW

So previously there was a recall for graphic issues in certain older model Macbook 15inch pros. There can be a multitude of different symptoms for this recall ranging from boot loops, pixelation, wavy screen, checkerboard blue and shutting down. This is due to the way the thermal paste was initially applied and over time it fails. What we do is reflow the chip by redoing the thermal paste. This will make your MacBook usable again but only for light usage which is everything except using processor heavy applications like photoshop, final cut, lightroom.